In part one, I gave details about our new American Guinea Hog gilt, Branch Water MS Sharon. This post is about our boar OAF MS King David.

King David is his given name, David was my father’s name. It is my oldest brother’s name and my father-in-law’s name is also David. All are very important men in my life. King is a nod to his lineage. His sire is BRP MS King Xerxes.

Xerxes was originally paired with Danina Queen Esther but she stopped producing and is no more, so King David’s Dam is WR Calypso.

BRP is the herd prefix of Broad River Pastures, a farm that was owned by Cathy R. Payne, Cathy was part of the Genetic Recovery Initiative that helped include the Sumrall line hogs into the AGHA registry. Also, she literally wrote the book on American Guinea Hogs, Saving the Guinea Hogs: The Recovery of an American Homestead Breed. 

MS means Sumrall. Xerxes could arguably be one of the most “Sumrall” hogs there is. His sire and dam were both bred by Gary Sumrall, his sire’s sire was “Unknown Sumrall Boar” meaning, he was selected by Mr. Sumrall from other unregistered boars as the most like the kind of hogs he wanted, the Sumrall family type hog. His dam had, on both sides of her pedigree, the only remaining hog from the original Sumrall line, Sumrall’s Bobbie Sue.

Bobbie Sue was taken from Laurel MS to South Dakota by Dr. Arie McFarlen where she carefully maintained a line of Sumrall hogs until Mr. Sumrall was able to restart his breeding program. Xerxes’ sire also has Bobby Sue in his pedigree.

Another reason I am excited to choose a boar sired by Xerxes is that one of the sows in Xerxes’ pedigree was a full sister to my first registered American Guinea Hog, Josie. I bought Josie in 2010 from the Shirleys of Wesson, MS. Gary Sumrall also purchased a sow from them out of the same sire and dam as Josie and chose her to continue the traits of his family line. I could have had a good start but back in 2010 my farm and I were both unprepared. Starting over with these genetics almost feels like picking up where I left off but with more experience in life and with hogs.

WR Calypso is the outcross in the group, by that I don’t mean she is completely unrelated to Xerxes or to Sharon’s sire and dam, but that she has no Sumrall genetics. She does have a fairly diverse lineage including several BRP ancestors.

Emory Conrad, Calypso ‘s sire is one interesting non-Sumrall hog that I would like to learn more about. Because he is in the pedigree of both Sharon and King David, he will have a strong influence on any offspring they have.

Branch Water MS Sharon and OAF MS King David are more than just some creative and meaningful names, they represent the hope I have for the American Guinea Hog breed, the Sumrall line, and Tick Creek Farm.

The first of our the new hogs that will be coming to Tick Creek Farm soon, is an American Guinea hog gilt named Sharon. She is coming from Branch Water Farm in Lugoff, SC so her full name is Branch Water MS Sharon. I’ll break that down a little better: Branch Water is the breeding farm’s herd prefix. MS like the piggy? Nope. MS like the state. Because she is from a specific line of these pigs that came out of Laurel, MS, a common way to designate this is to include MS in the name. The line is known as the Sumrall line because the Gary Sumrall and his family were the origin of the line. Sharon? That is dual purpose. My mom’s name was Sharon and the community that the Sumrall family line was in is also called Sharon.

In part two I’ll go into some details about my boar that is currently in Griffin, GA.

If you want to learn more about American Guinea Hogs, including the Sumrall line, I highly recommend picking up a copy of the book Saving the Guinea Hogs: The Recovery of an American Homestead Breed by Cathy R. Payne, EdD. https://guineahogbooks.com/store/